Russian Energy Ministry and national oil companies will discuss continuation of an oil production limiting deal with the OPEC by May 24, minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Friday.
"We will definitely meet companies at the chief executives level before the monitoring committee meeting," the minister said.
A wide range of industry issues is discussed at such meeting, Novak said. "The issue [of Russia’s participation in deal extension - TASS] is definitely of current interest and we will therefore discuss it," he added.
Russia will define its position on extension of the oil production limiting deal with the OPEC by the monitoring committee meeting scheduled on May 24, according to Novak.
"We will formulate our position by the monitoring committee meeting that will be held in Vienna [on May 24 - TASS]. We are still debating this issue," the minister said.
As it was reported earlier, OPEC countries and 11 oil exporting countries, which are not members of the cartel, pledged to cut production by 1.8 million barrels per day in the first half of 2017 in comparison with October 2016 level. In particular, under the agreement, Russia is to cut production by 2.7% to the level of last October or by 300,000 per day.
Russia slashed oil production by 254,000 barrels daily as of April 27 and will deliver the target cut by 300,000 barrels a day under the OPEC oil production limiting deal at the turn of April, according to Novak.
(ITAR-TASS)
